About UNHRC

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations System. The UNHRC (HQ @ Geneva) is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR, herein CHR), and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly. The council works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and engages the United Nations' Special procedures.

The members of the General Assembly elect the members who occupy the UNHRC's forty-seven seats. The General Assembly takes into account the candidate States’ contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard. The term of each seat is three years, and no member may occupy a seat for more than two consecutive terms. The seats are distributed among the UN's regional groups as follows:

v     13 for Africa

v     13 for Asia

v     06 for Eastern Europe

v     08 for Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC)

v     07 for the Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

The previous CHR had a membership of 53 elected by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) through a majority of those present and voting.

The General Assembly can suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership. The suspension process requires a two-thirds majority vote by the General Assembly. The resolution establishing the UNHRC states that "members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights."

Sessions:-

The UNHRC holds regular sessions three times a year, in March, June and September. The UNHRC can decide at any time to hold a special session to address human rights violations and emergencies, at the request of one-third of the member states. To date there have been 19 Special Sessions.

Members:-

            Members of the UNHRC are elected to staggered three-year terms. The current members, with the year that the mandate expires in parentheses, are the following:

Current Membership of the Human Rights Council, 1 January - 31 December 2013 by regional groups

AFRICAN STATES	LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN STATES
Angola (2013) Benin (2014) Botswana (2014) Burkina Faso (2014) Congo (2014) Côte d’Ivoire (2015) Ethiopia (2015) Gabon (2015) Kenya (2015) Libya (2013) Mauritania (2013) Sierra Leone (2015) Uganda (2013)	Argentina (2015) Brazil (2015) Chile (2014) Costa Rica (2014) Ecuador (2013) Guatemala (2013) Peru (2014) Venezuela (2015)
ASIAN STATES	WESTERN EUROPE & OTHER STATES
India (2014) Indonesia (2014) Japan (2015) Kazakhstan (2015)  Kuwait (2014)  Malaysia (2013) Maldives (2013) Pakistan (2015) Philippines (2014)  Qatar (2013) Republic of Korea (2015) Thailand (2013) United Arab Emirates (2015)	Austria (2014) Germany (2015) Ireland (2015) Italy (2014) Spain (2013)  Switzerland (2013) United States of America (2015)
EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES
Czech Republic (2014) Estonia (2015)  Montenegro (2015) Poland (2013) Republic of Moldova (2013)  Romania (2014)

High Commissioner of UNHRC:-

The appointment of Navanethem Pillay as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was approved by the General Assembly on 28 July 2008. She took up the post on 1 September 2008. Her mandate has been renewed for two years beginning on 1 September 2012. Ms. Pillay, a South African national, was the first woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal in 1967. Over the next few years, she acted as a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists, exposing torture, and helping establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island.